Composer and Pianist LAURIE ALTMAN was born and raised in New York City. He attended the Mannes College of Music in New York, majoring in composition which included studies with William Sydeman and Lester Trimble. Laurie Altman has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including the Mason Gross Fellowship, a Lincoln Center Composers Forum Award, a Woodrow Wilson Composers Residency, and a University Professors Citation of Excellence from Tufts University in Boston. He received, as well, five Composition fellowships from the New Jersey Council of the Arts, and was a panelist for the New York Council of the Arts. An Assistant Professor at Westminster Choir College/ Rider University in Princeton New Jersey for many years, Laurie Altman pursued an extensive career as a performing jazz pianist with his quintet in New York City at such places as the Blue Note, Seventh Avenue South and Soundscape, as well as clubs and festivals in Russia, Helsinki and Germany. Since moving to Switzerland in 2010, he has had two European premieres at the Musikverein in Vienna, as well as performances in Zurich. His CD On Course appeared on Albany Records, and in November 2013 saw the release of his CD Convergence, on NEOS music, followed in April of 2014 with another NEOS release, Divergence, featuring the Plattform K+K String Quartet and musicians from Wien. Laurie Altman lives with his wife, pianist and photographer Jeannine Hummel in Spiez and in Zurich. Laurie Altman is a consummate musician with the ability to convey simplicity in the most complex of musical structures. Well-known for his work in the field of jazz, Altman draws upon all musical styles and genres to create music that is both innovative and yet develops naturally from all that preceded it. Altman's opus includes chamber, vocal, piano, opera and choral works as well as film scores, commercials and incidental music. In addition, Altman has composed over one hundred jazz pieces performed in concerts, club appearances and on recordings. He has performed in London, Mexico City, Holland, Scandinavia, and throughout the United States, has recorded for American Gramophone, GS, and Progressive recording labels, and has been published by Warner Brothers Publications, Theodore Presser and Company, as well as Carl Fischer, Inc. [579 hits since June 2006]